All That Fills My Heart

As the age-old adage goes, "The days are long, but the years are short." How true! Yet another week is nearly over, and I am only three short weeks away from summer break! I am trying hard to enjoy myself. I am making friends, keeping active, and finding other ways to stay entertained. But at times, I get super caught up with my classes and I just forget to stop and smell the roses. Sadly, the past week and a half have been that type of time. It's so hard for me to step back and see that in the whole scheme of things, nobody's going to care whether my grades were exceptional or just decent. I believe I need to do my best and that grades are important, but it is more essential to keep my focus on God so I don't miss out on His perfect plan.

I currently have two post-it notes on my computer:

1. "Set your affection on things above, not on things of the earth." Colossians 3:2. Brings me back to the basics when I start becoming overwhelmed and distracted from my life's real mission.

2. FOCUS. This simple command somehow motivates me to stay focused. It is an ironic image, really. I drew block letters to write "Focus" and started coloring them in with a pen but only finished the "Fo" and part of the "c". That is when I lost focus and did not finish coloring them. The oddity makes it that much more motivating, I suppose. :)

To start out this post, I opened a hymnbook in hopes of inspiration and it fell open to the following song. And I realized it says quite a lot about where my heart and focus must be! "All that fills my heart with joy waits in glory there on high."

All That Fills My Heart 

(HZ 226)

My life's best delight and pleasure

Is yon heaven, God's own throne!

And my greatest prize and treasure

Is my Saviour, God's own Son.

All that fills my heart with joy

Waits in glory there on high.

Others may find satisfaction

In the greed for worldly gain;

Heav'n alone is my attraction

Close to Jesus I'll remain!

Earthly riches pass and fail,

Jesus and His realm prevail.

Nowhere are there greater treasures

Than in Jesus Christ I find.

All the earthly joys and pleasures

Only burden heart and mind.

Just to call the Lord my own,

Satisfies my soul alone.

Though I lived a thousand seasons,

Worldly joys would not endure;

But to live one day for Jesus

Would more happiness secure.

In the highest ranks they stand

Who attain to God's right hand.

Share then, Lord, to me the rapture

That with Thee I may abide!

Be my guide, my sun of splendor

That will never lose its light!

Draw me wholly unto Thee,

Evermore with Thee to be.

Oh, let us stay focused on Jesus and that heavenly world to come! What joy it will be when His face I shall see...

Hope you all have a good weekend!

Living Life and Loving It

It's about time, I know. But I must admit, I'm still not feeling inspired to write.

It has been about three weeks since the last time I (really) wrote. I am sitting in my own house for the first time since then. Yes, that's how busy life has seemed. The first weekend in April, the family went to Morris for Kendra's baptism. The second weekend, Billy, Jared, and I went back to Morris North for their invite-a-friend. Both weekends were wonderful and I enjoyed being with the cousins!

As for life at home, I can't say exactly what has transpired around here. From the looks of things, there are some new family pictures hanging on the wall. The house is cleaner than when I left it three weeks ago. The scanner was repositioned on the fireplace. A new drawing is up on Jesse's easel, though I cannot tell what it signifies. Billy's graduation invitations have arrived in the mail. And the piano is still in tune. Trust me.

Billy is several weeks closer to his high school graduation, which is exactly a month away! Insanity is still going strong. They're over halfway done now! Mom and Dad are off in Branson this week for a getaway and will be coming home tomorrow morning.

College is busy. Really busy. The thing is, no matter how busy it gets, I cannot get motivated to actually get anything done. I think I have summer-itis. I am so excited for summer break. I have an internship in Burlington and also plan to go to Ixtlan for a week in July.

In order to motivate myself, I'm going to publicly set a goal for myself this weekend because maybe if it's posted online I'll be more accountable to my own goals.

Here is what I want to complete before going back to school Sunday evening:
-Rough draft of history paper (Saturday) DONE!
-Rough draft of BCaP paper (Saturday) DONE!
-Revised draft of management paper (Saturday) DONE!
-Activities 19-21 for managerial accounting (Friday) DONE!
-Finish Spanish homework (Friday)  DONE!
-Read BCaP (Saturday) DONE!
-Requirements for managerial accounting (Sunday)  DONE!
*Monday evening note: I only finished half of what I set out to do over the weekend (I worked hard, but it was just a busy weekend), but I still think this was helpful because I got more done than I would have if I hadn't set the goal in the first place! Unfortunately, there is no way I can go to bed by 9 since I still have these papers to write!! :)

We learned in college about setting challenging goals for ourselves. This will be challenging and require my full dedication. But I can do it! :) And my reward? I will guiltlessly go to sleep at 9:00pm Monday night. I know, the things that make me happy are lame. But it sure would make my week. And it's free, healthy, and simple. :) I'll let you know how it works out by updating this post as I finish my tasks.

Alright, I'm done expounding my random, useless thoughts. Wake me up when summer comes.

Life is good. I just feel like I'm on a roller coaster. :) But hey, it's the life of a student. And it's great to be a student. Especially the Hawkeye kind. ;)

Hope you all have a good week!

Title of the Post

Brief introduction mentioning the nasty but beautiful weather and my lovely week.

Apology for not writing with explanation about how busy I've been.

More details about my lovely week.

Description of how God continues to show His love every day.

Promise to write later when my head works again.

Expression of love and best wishes to my readers.

Minute to Win It

The kids played "Minute to Win It" last weekend, based on a family TV show consisting of several small challenges to each be completed in less than a minute. It all began when I got home from college and showed them the "Stack Attack" challenge I saw in class on Thursday. From there, the boys looked up other challenges and everyone tried them Saturday night! :) Fun time with the family...

"Stack Attack" Stack 36 plastic cups in a pyramid and then take them all down and put them in back into one stack.  

The countdown-everything had to be official!

"Sticky Balls" Roll marbles across the table and get at least 10 to stick to a piece of tape at the end.  

"Bouncer" Bounce ping-pong balls into 20 cups...we had to improvise but it made it easier. 

"Hangover" Balance 6 hangers on each other...the most difficult! 

"Go the Distance" Roll a ping-pong ball on a tape measure into a shot glass from 4, 5, and 6 feet away.  

"Stack Attack"...I think half the challenge is the intense countdown music. :) (Please recall this was Easter break, a time when the house does not stay clean!) 

The boys later found many other things to do with the plastic cups!  

So that was our Saturday evening entertainment last weekend...you never know what you'll run into around here. :) It was great to be with the family for Easter!

P.S. Several people have been asking me about our April Fool's Day...hopefully I can get one of the boys to post about it soon since I wasn't around! :)

Have a good week!

He is not here: for HE IS RISEN!

Happy Easter! What wonderful news it is: HE IS RISEN! Jesus conquered the grave and now lives in Heaven on the right hand of our Lord! Not only did He she shed His innocent blood and give His life so we could be forgiven, but He fulfilled his promise to rise again on the third day to have the final victory over sin and death. All this so WE could be saved and have the hope of eternal life with Him in Heaven some day! Such a loving, gracious God we serve!

"And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." (Matthew 28:5-6)

"And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:18-20)

We had a nice weekend to spend together as a family...never a dull moment at our house! Between Minute to Win It, Easter egg hunts, coloring eggs, Insanity, and lots of eating, we kept quite busy. We all got so much candy this morning that we were hardly hungry for supper! But it was good time spent together and for that we are thankful!

Everyone is ready for their egg hunt...though Johnny must not be too pleased about it! :) The three oldest kids hid half the eggs for the younger three, and then vice versa. 

This took talent!

OTHER PICTURES:

Dad's birthday was Thursday...he graduated to the age where you only get one candle. The Oreo cupcakes were yummy!

Yes...the beautiful, delicious cupcakes. 

This is what the boys did all last week. They don't have a sister around to keep them from wrestling. Apparently this is considered "fun." ;)  

Hope you all had a blessed Easter and have a wonderful week!